ASIO concerns grow over returned jihadists

The nation’s top spy has expressed concern about ‘‘tens’’ of former Australian jihadists who have already returned from fighting in the Middle East and who may now pose a terrorism threat at home.

ASIO director-general David Irvine also stepped up his call for controversial new laws forcing phone and internet companies to keep records of customers’ communications for up to two years, describing it as ‘‘absolutely crucial’’ to the spy agency’s future work.

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The Attorney-General George Brandis announces changes to the ASIO Act.

His remarks came as the Attorney-General George Brandis introduced the government’s first wave of tougher national security laws and also backflipped on a previous decision to scrap the national security legislation watchdog.

The spy boss expanded on ASIO’s previously expressed concerns about Australian jihadists, revealing that on top of the roughly 60 people fighting in the Middle East, there were ‘‘some tens of people who’ve already returned’’.

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He also revealed there were ‘‘another 150 that we’re looking at here in Australia who have inclinations to support those ... extremist groups’’ – referring to the al-Qaeda offshoots the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Jabhat al-Nusra.

Concern over former Australian jihadists: Attorney-General Senator George Brandis (right) and Director-General of Security, David Irvine. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

The legislation the government introduced on Wednesday will expand ASIO’s powers to conduct computer surveillance and make it easier to swap information with the foreign intelligence agency ASIS – seen as a useful tool against terrorism.

The legislation has left out for now so-called ‘‘data retention’’, which would compel phone and internet companies to store ‘‘metadata’’ such as times, addresses and lengths of phone calls, text messages, emails and Skype calls – though not the content – for up to two years. The records would be kept by the companies, not the government, but authorities could later access that data for investigations and prosecutions – prompting privacy advocates to condemn it as an expansion of state powers.

Senator Brandis said data retention was ‘‘under active consideration’’ by the government.

On Thursday, Senator Brandis said the onus would be on government to ensure any data retention would not be arbitrary or unlawful.

''As I say, the government has not made a decision on that issue yet, but you’re also right when you say that western governments are moving in that direction,'' he told ABC radio.

''If this government were to make that decision then it would absolutely need to be hedged by safeguards. That’s what the bi-partisan parliamentary committee recommended.''

Senator Brandis said he was a ''liberal. I am against big government ''.

''I have a bred in the bones suspicion of big government and arbitrary power. So I, of all people, am going to ensure that whatever reforms in order to underwrite public safety are assayed in this area will be subject to appropriate safeguards.''

Senator Brandis echoed Mr Irvine's concerns about returned jihadists, pointing to the convictions of returned jihadists from Afghanistan a decade ago.

''A decade or so ago during the Afghan conflict, about 30 Australians travelled to Afghanistan to link up with the Taliban and engage in jihadist war fighting on behalf of the Taliban. Of those 30, 25 returned to Australia,'' he told ABC radio.

''Of those 25, 19 were involved in preparing and planning mass casualty terrorist attacks in Australian and of those 19, eight were actually prosecuted and convicted. So there is a very high incidence of returning jihadists to engage in counter-terrorism.

''As Mr Irvine has said on the public record, there have been four mass casualty attacks on the Australian homeland interdicted in the last decade or so. This is not a fanciful notion.''

Mr Irvine said on Wednesday that data retention was ‘‘absolutely crucial’’ because almost every ASIO investigation and most police investigations depended on such metadata.

The second tranche of new counter-terrorism laws will likely be introduced to Parliament in spring, Senator Brandis said.

He said the government would abandon its previous decision to scrap the key role of the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor, whose recommendations over the past two years form the basis of much of the government’s current review of counter-terrorism laws.

Senator Brandis said that scrapping the monitor had been an ‘‘economy measure’’ and ‘‘not something we particularly wanted to do’’.